New Delhi: A fake deal to buy a newborn, a decoy couple and a four-day-old infant led police to an alleged child trafficking racket operating in the city. The investigation later traced part of the network to a private hospital in Rohini’s Begumpur, which played a key role in arranging babies and creating documents to pass them off as the biological children of buyers, Delhi Police said in its more-than-600-page chargesheet.Police have chargesheeted 24 people, including 12 alleged buyers and Dr Viveki, owner of the private hospital. The accused have been booked under sections 143(4) (human trafficking), 61(2) (criminal conspiracy), 3(5) (common intention) and other provisions of Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, besides Section 81 (prohibition of sale and procurement of babies) of Juvenile Justice Act. Nine babies, allegedly sourced from Delhi and other states, were rescued during the investigation. The chargesheet was filed before Tis Hazari Court on Sept 3.Police sources said the racket came to light after an informer reported seeing a woman carrying different babies on different occasions. Police tracked the woman, identified as Jyoti alias Kamlesh. To gather evidence, a male and a female officer posed as decoy customers and contacted her.Jyoti allegedly agreed to sell a male infant for Rs 5 lakh and took Rs 20,000 as token money and asked them to meet her near RK Ashram metro station on June 5 for the delivery. A Central district police team reached the spot and rescued the four-to-five-day-old infant and arrested Jyoti, later identified as an alleged key coordinator of the racket.Dr Viveki turned out to be another key accused, police said. According to the chargesheet, her hospital was used to stage fake hospitalisations, prepare fabricated medical records and treatment histories, and forge delivery documents to establish false parentage. Once the paperwork was in place, the infants were handed over to couples as their biological children, police said.Dr Viveki allegedly also kept trafficked infants at the hospital and identified prospective buyers among childless couples who approached the facility for fertility-related treatment.The investigation has revealed illegal child trafficking transactions involving several lakhs of rupees, police alleged. The babies were bought for Rs 1.5-2 lakh each and sold for Rs 6-8 lakh, they claimed. Several infants were allegedly brought from remote parts of the country by Saybabhai Ghamar alias Kalia.Among those chargesheeted was a couple who had allegedly sold their newborn. According to sources, the gang targeted financially vulnerable parents and lured them with money to get their babies. In some cases, childless couples allegedly learnt through acquaintances that a baby could be arranged for them.
